Finally got zinged on Ebay
Love of the Game
Posts: 250 ✭✭
Got nailed, finally, on the purchase of unopened product. Not a big purchase by any means, just an '81 Fleer vending box. I was infatuated with that set as a kid, and decided it would be cheap enough to piece together a nice raw set. So I bought two vending boxes two weeks ago.
I just cracked one, and there was not a SINGLE key card in the box. No Rose, Schmidt, Henderson, Baines, Reardon, Brett, Yount, Jackson, Ryan, Winfield, Molitor. One Steve Carlton, a Tony Perez, a Steve Garvey and a Joe Morgan were about the only stars in the box. Not even a Valenzuela rookie.
I'm not convinced that the deception here was on the part of the seller- this seller seems to offer a lot of unopened product, so I'd find it hard to believe that they'd be deliberately deceptive on a $20 vending box. Therefore, I won't reveal the seller's name. Unless, of course, they don't stand behind their product - I just dropped them an email, asking how best to resolve the situation.
Got to say, though, that even on a measly $20 purchase, I'm pissed. So I thought I'd vent.
Back to your regularly-scheduled WIWAG.
-Al
I just cracked one, and there was not a SINGLE key card in the box. No Rose, Schmidt, Henderson, Baines, Reardon, Brett, Yount, Jackson, Ryan, Winfield, Molitor. One Steve Carlton, a Tony Perez, a Steve Garvey and a Joe Morgan were about the only stars in the box. Not even a Valenzuela rookie.
I'm not convinced that the deception here was on the part of the seller- this seller seems to offer a lot of unopened product, so I'd find it hard to believe that they'd be deliberately deceptive on a $20 vending box. Therefore, I won't reveal the seller's name. Unless, of course, they don't stand behind their product - I just dropped them an email, asking how best to resolve the situation.
Got to say, though, that even on a measly $20 purchase, I'm pissed. So I thought I'd vent.
Back to your regularly-scheduled WIWAG.
-Al
0
Comments
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
Do you still have a box you didn't open? How does it look? If it doesn't have an "orderly layered" look to it, it was probably messed with.
The money not withstanding, sorry to hear about your disappointment. Right now, you can get an 81F vending box from the
Baseball card exchange for 15$ and they are very trusted.
your friend
Mike
Anyway, the vending boxes are marked #1 through 4. You can assemble three sets with four boxes, and apparently they even give you instructions on how to assemble the sets with a minimum of hand-collation. However, with this issue, assembling three sets is no big deal - you could assemble three sets with cards you find on the floor at a card show. They're all painfully OC, and the true fun of '81 Fleer is the sheer magnitude of errors. In order to collect the errors, you need to obtain boxes from the various print runs. In order to find a well-centered copy, you need to open bunches of boxes. This set really is a mess. It's like a big train wreck.
That's exactly what I liked about it as a kid. Kurt Bevaqua's photo is reversed! Graig Nettles' name is misspelled! The Schmidt/Rose/Bowa has no number! Larry Sorensen is really Bill Travers! Stan Papi is a shortstop, not a pitcher! The Steve Carlton alone had to be corrected at least twice before they got it right. It seemed like every card had some sort of error on it.
We'll see if the seller is smart enough to refund the money.
Stone, BTW, the other box doesn't look like a typical vending box when I lift the lid. No "pattern" to the cards. But for all I know, that pattern is only relevant to Topps' issues. The Fleer was done on white stock, and who knows how the cards were collated before they were put in the box. I couldn't imagine what to expect. I'm probably best off buying one box (at least) from BBCExchange, just so I can see what they SHOULD look like.
-Al
Here is a link with a scan to the page in Mark Murphy's book on unopened material. It will give you some insight into the Fleer vending.
your friend
Mike
<< <i>I wouldn't even know what to take if I was going to search an 81 fleer vending box. >>
Henderson 2nd year, I suppose. Candidates for PSA 10 among the stars? I would think not much else would justify the grading fee. Isn't it a poor quality set where even 9's are not that easy? I heard certain players are very hard to find centered.
why the heck would anyone search an 81 fleer vending box? I feel bad if you did get a searched one but whoever searched it needs to be committed. I wouldn't even know what to take if I was going to search an 81 fleer vending box. good luck with your set
Text
That's exactly why I don't think the seller did it himself. The chances of getting a PSA 10 star card out of one of those boxes is practically nil, and nothing else would be worth doing. Like Mike said, these boxes are $15 at BBCExchange. To search one and wreck your reputation over a $15 box is just plain stupid. More likely that he bought an entire case that had been searched, and didn't realize it. Now he's selling them, and still doesn't realize it.
In terms of the set, my only reason for collecting it is because I was addicted to it as a kid. I figure if I want to accumulate a well-centered set, I'll have to buy 20 vending boxes, maybe more. The quality is probably the worst I've seen in any modern set.
I guess you could do well with a PSA 10 Henderson, Rose, Ryan, Schmidt, or Jackson, plus the Baines rookie. Perhaps someone working on a master player set could buy eight or nine vending boxes before they approached the price they'd have to pay for a PSA10 Nolan Ryan.
Who knows? Some people, you can't figure out.
-Al
than usual and they are crap? Am I wrong with this?
ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240
Your friend
Mike
edit: ps - I like things simple so the design is actually OK with me.
Nick
Reap the whirlwind.
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